Thursday, November 12, 2009

Oh reading week...

So this week is the "reading week" at Queens University. Basically everybody is off from classes except for us science majors. Most people went on glamorous vacations (Jenn&pals -> Spain, Sean&pals ->Prague, Mike & pals -> Malta). Due to my little financial hiccup, the need to get some serious work done, and the fact that I actually had some classes (a lot of professors cancelled cause they get that no ones going to show up anyway), I stayed in Belfast this week to well...read.

So yep, there's really not much to report on except that this week has been a week of intense schoolwork and intense workouts. I started the week with a 7am spinning class followed by some weights and whatnot. Tuesday and Wednesday each had a 5 mile run followed by the hour long core class that is offered at the gym. I'm pretty sure that class is only meant to be done once a week because it is insanely hard, but I've gotten so much better at it since the beginning of this trip. I always feel great the day after no matter how much it hurts. Last night every muscle in my core was dying and whenever I laughed or coughed my abs killed....in a good way. I thought my knee was holding up alright with the 2 runs, but I woke up this morning and it was pretty sore. And so today is definitely an off day.

Aside from being at the gym, the rest of my free time has pretty much been at the library. I finished my paper for philosophy on utilitarianism (well...finished enough for now), and now I've moved on to immunology. I'm in no rush to get these papers done (the final 4 papers aren't due until I leave in mid December), but I really don't want to be stressed and pulling allnighters during my final weeks here. My goal is to get these papers at least started by the end of the month. awoo.

I had today off from all my classes so Anna and I headed to the library pretty early to get some serious work done. 7 hours of researching the applications of monoclonal antibodies later, I was beat. So, I came home to bake!I found a recipe for healthy oatmeal raisin cookies online and did work

3/4 wine glass whole wheat flour

1 1/2 wine glass oats

3/4 wine glass raisins

1/2 spoon baking powder

1/4 spoon sea salt

1/4 wine glass butter

1/4 wine glass plain yogurt

1/2 wine glass brown sugar

1 egg

1 spoon vanilla

Seeing as we are only here for 3 months and buying all new kitchen supplies would be just silly, I measured out the ingredients in the best way possible:cheers. flour.After using this brilliant method, voila:I think more of that was consumed than the actual cookies.After 7 hours in the library and 20 minutes of baking, we vegged out by snacking on these bad boys, perusing chick magazines, and watching trashy tv. basically... loving life.ya buddy.

So tomorrow is going to be a lot like today. Waking up early for 7am spinning, followed by as many hours at the library as I can handle. I will also be checking the mail about 18 times tomorrow until Bank of America finally sends me my new debit card.

And all this work will pay off because Saturday i'm going to SCOTLAND! For 20 pounds, I get a round trip ferry from Belfast to Strenaline (a port town in scotland) and a bus from Strenaline to Glasgow. So I'll be leaving at about 6am, hopping over to Scotland for the day, exploring what Glasgow has to offer, then heading back later than night. I originally wanted to do a whole weekend in Scotland, but with time and money running short, this is really the best option. Not to mention it's an amazing deal.Okay, that's about all for now.:)